The subject of the present invention is an angle piece for a contact rail, which rail comprises a support body of U-shaped section provided with longitudinal conductors placed in the longitudinal groove of the support body excentrically in relation to the sides of the support body, whereby the angle piece, with its end portion, comprises an L-shaped body portion which can be pushed into the groove of the support body longitudinally and which is, at each end portion, provided with contact fingers so as to contact the conductors in the support body. The contact fingers are placed eccentrically in relation to the inner and outer flanks of the body portion and the contact fingers are mounted onto an installation component supported by the body portion and adjustable in relation to the body portion.
Contact rails of this type are commonly used in the electrical distribution system of various lighting appliances and apparatuses. The distribution system is assembled into a suitable system of current contact rails out of individual contact rails, which are connected to each other by means of appropriate connecting pieces. When two contact rails must be connected to each other in an angular position, an L-shaped angle piece is used, both of whose end portions are inserted into the corresponding contact rail, whereby the contact fingers of the angle piece reach contact with the conductors in the contact rails.
When such a current contact rail system is assembled, it is important that the various conductors (zero and phase conductors) of one contact rail are connected correctly to the conductors of the next contact rail so that the conductors of the next contact rail continue as of the same phase. In order to ensure this, a known arrangement is to mount the conductors in the contact rail as positioned in the longitudinal groove of the U-shaped support body eccentrically in relation to the sides of the support body and, correspondingly, to arrange the conductors in the angle piece also eccentrically. In this way it can be achieved that to the contact rail it is only possible to connect such an angle piece in which the contact finger, e.g., of the zero conductor is placed in the end portion of the angle piece on the same side, e.g., on the side of the inside, as the zero conductor in the contact rail and that, correspondingly, to the other end portion of the angle piece, it is possible to connect a contact rail only in a position in which the zero conductor of the rail is placed on the inside side of the angle piece.
Such a means of security, however, causes the drawback that two types of angle pieces are required, i.e. angle pieces in which the eccentricity of the contact fingers is towards the inside and angle pieces in which the eccentricity is towards the outside, for connecting a contact rail continuing from the contact rail to the right, and to the left, respectively.
The purpose of the present invention is to provide an angle piece that eliminates the above drawback, and this purpose is achieved by means of the angle piece in accordance with the present invention, which is characterized in that the L-shaped installation component can be shifted in relation to the body portion in its diagonal direction so that the contact fingers can be selectively adjusted so as to come closer to the inside flank or closer to the outside flank of the body portion.